


The Stranger

by Hours_Gone_By



Series: Assassin AU [1]
Category: Transformers - Aligned Continuity Family, Transformers - All Media Types
Genre: Alternate Universe - Assassins & Hitmen, Assassination Plot(s), M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-09
Updated: 2018-12-09
Packaged: 2019-09-13 20:09:13
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,017
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16899093
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Hours_Gone_By/pseuds/Hours_Gone_By
Summary: Jazz left his balcony door open to catch the night breeze. The past few days had been unusually warm and humid for Altihex, and he wanted to feel the air move. Humming, he poured himself a cube, flavoured it, and turned back to the balcony.There was a black and white mech standing in front of him.Originally posted aspart of AU Yeah August 2018. Separating it out to make it easier to follow as the series continues.





	The Stranger

**Author's Note:**

> Based on [Writing Prompt #49](https://writtenwolves.tumblr.com/post/172085047714/writing-prompt-49), “Your character has a reputation for being the most ethical assassin around” from [Written Wolves](https://writtenwolves.tumblr.com).  
> 

Jazz left his balcony door open to catch the night breeze. The past few days had been unusually warm and humid for Altihex, and he wanted to feel the air move. Humming, he poured himself a cube, flavoured it, and turned back to the balcony.

There was a black and white mech standing in front of him.

Jazz started, dropping the cube. A white hand flashed out and caught it.

“You really shouldn’t leave your doors open like that,” the stranger chided, straightening and balancing the cube on his fingertips. The word ‘dangerous’ flicked through Jazz’s mind. “Anyone could just walk in.”

“I – what – I’m on the twenty-sixth floor!”

“Yes,” the stranger agreed. “It does take a bit of nerve – or flight capability. I’d lock the door and rely on the environmental systems if I were you. I _wouldn’t_ bother trying to contact law enforcement; your comm systems are being quite effectively jammed.”

The stranger sauntered over and made himself at home in Jazz’s favourite chair.

“Well?” the stranger said expectantly. “Get yourself another and sit down. It’s time to have a little talk. I’ve come to deliver a warning.”

“About my doors? Thanks. Job done.”

The stranger sighed. “No, it’s not. I’d have left if it were.” He gestured towards the dispenser. “Cube. Flavour. Seat. I’m not leaving until we’ve talked, and I can wait all night. I’m endlessly patient. I can also,” he added, “get to the door faster than you can, even from here. This only goes my way. I recommend compliance.”

There was steel in his voice and a glint in his optics that made Jazz do as he was told. He got another cube, dispensed, flavoured, and sat in the chair opposite his uninvited guest. He’d tried his internal comms and found that, yes, they were jammed.

“There,” the stranger said, satisfied. “Isn’t that better?” He didn’t wait for a reply. “So. Jazz of Altihex. Sparked and mentored in this city, attended the Altihex State College for your bachelor’s in accounting, became a CPA and that got you into the civil service as a forensic accountant.

“Currently, you’re leading an investigation into fraud in companies suspected of laundering shanix for the Praxian mob.” The stranger boldly sipped from the cube he’d stolen. “You must be doing well because the head of the local mob, Barricade, is _very_ unhappy with you. Unhappy enough to begin…outsourcing to solve his problem, which I provisionally agreed to do.”

Oh. Jazz’s hands tightened around the cube. “I won’t undermine the investigation and if you kill me…”

“Oh, I’m not going to kill you. As I said, I _provisionally_ agreed to do it. I can’t just walk around killing strangers because someone like _Barricade_ says so. There are two sides to every story after all. I’m an assassin, yes, but I’m not unethical. Every profession has to have its rules, after all.”

Assassin. Ethics. _Primus_.

“You’re Prowl,” Jazz whispered. He knew the name. He had regular contact with law enforcement, and Prowl was almost an urban legend among Cybertron’s police. There were a bare handful of reliable mechs who’d claimed to have seen him, the occasional bit of forensic evidence from his earliest hits. Jazz had made the wrong assumption: the warning Prowl had mentioned earlier wasn’t meant for _him_. Instead, he was going to _be_ the warning.

Prowl grinned and raised his cube in congratulations. “So I am. But calm down, kid, I’m not here to kill you. I looked into your background, and I looked into Barricade’s. You’ve never been in trouble with the law, you’re a conscientious employee, you donate to charity regularly, and you have a lot of friends. People like you. You obey the rules.

“Barricade on the other hand…Barricade has been a very naughty mech even by the rules of his rather dubious profession. He doesn’t want you offline, and your investigation stopped because you’re a threat to the Praxian mob, he wants it because you’re a threat to _him_. That’s what I’m here to warn you about.”

“So,” Jazz tried to get his head around the idea of an ethical assassin that warned targets he wasn’t going to kill that he’d been asked to kill them, “you’re not here to kill me. Just – warn me that you were hired to do it?”

Prowl stretched his legs out and crossed them at the ankles, took another casual sip. “I’m not here to kill you, Jazz, no. But not all my – well, they’re not peers, but you understand. They’re not concerned with ethics at all, just the payout. So here’s what you’re going to do: five kliks after I leave your comms will be open again, and you’ll contact your police friends. Tell them what I told you and get them to put you under protection until the case is done. Improve your home security – I recommend Red Alert, he’s paranoid as they come, but it makes him excellent at his job – and once all of Barricade’s been found, you can get back to your life.”

“What – what about the rest of the mob?”

Prowl shrugged and subspaced the cube. No doubt that was to prevent leaving any forensics behind.

“What about them? They don’t go after every accountant or investigator in a case. It might be good for my accounts, but not theirs. Barricade is just panicking because he made some serious mistakes.” Prowl stood, disarmingly graceful, and strolled over to the balcony doors again. On a weird, shock-like impulse, Jazz followed him as if he were showing a guest out. “Well, I’ve said what I came to say. Thank you for the energon, by the way.” Prowl crossed the balcony and hopped lightly up onto the railing. “Remember, five klicks and then you can comm again.”

“But –“ Jazz stopped, caught by horror as Prowl flipped backward off the _twenty-six story high railing_ and dropped. After a frozen nano-klik Jazz ran across the balcony and leaned over, sure he’d see Prowl falling, maybe flying though it didn’t look like he’d had a flight alt.

But there was only empty air.


End file.
